Specials

March 6, 2013

WW1 Soldier's Letters Found in Attic of Home

Yesterday I read a CBC news story about a treasure trove of letters and photos from WW1 found in an attic. A young couple opened the trap door in the ceiling of their home to look for storage space and discovered a box full of letters written by a soldier in the CEF (Canadian Expeditionary Force) from the front lines.

The only clues given in the news story were that the soldier's name was N. E. Waring and the person he was writing to was Hilda McLeod. A short video with the story clearly shows Hilda's address as 126 Hampton Ave, Toronto Ontario. The couple want to return the letters and photos to a descendant and are asking for help.

CEF DATABASE

How I wish I could see those letters and photos to pick out more clues
and details but I decided to look for the author of the letters with the clues provided. A search of the online CEF database on Ancestry.com and on
Collections Canada brought up the most likely candidate for the letter
writer - Norman Edmund Waring of Carleton St. in Toronto. He gave his
next of kin as Mrs. James Waring, same address as his, when he enlisted
in December 1915.

The video shows parts of the letters and you can see the beautiful clear handwriting. Norman's signature on his Attestation papers in 1915 matches the signature on a postcard shown on the video.

Norman gives his birth date as February 1886 and that allowed me to find his birth registration on Ancestry. His parents are listed as James Waring and Bessie Waring and his place of birth, Ingersoll, agreed with the Attestation Papers.

CENSUS RECORDS

No marriage record for Normanwas found on Ancestry.com so I began a hunt for possible siblings of Norman. The 1891 census for Ingersoll reveals the family of

James Waring, 42 born Ireland
Bessie, 35 born Ireland
Henry, 12 born Ireland
Willie, 10 born Ontario
Albert, 8 born Ontario
Norman, 5 born Ontario
and Frederick 2 born Ontario

A later census record for 1911 shows one more son, Samuel, age 19 in 1911. The family is living at 279 Carleton Street in 1911. Henry, Norman and Fred are still at home with their parents and still single.

1940 Voter's List

It doesn't appear that Norman ever married, as he is later found as a single man on a 1940 Voter's List, living at 279 Carleton Street with his widowed mother Bessie and his brother William (also single)

So I decided to trace Norman's brothers to find out if they married and left descendants

NORMAN'S BROTHERS

A search for Norman's brothers revealed the following:

Henry Waring was found on Ancestry.com on a Border Crossing Record in 1915 crossing at Buffalo New York. His birth place is given as Belfast Ireland. I could fairly easily trace the family backwards and in fact, discovered their names on a passenger list for the ship The Montreal arriving Quebec from Ireland in June 1880. But the couple who found the letters and photos want to give them to a descendant so I had to stay focused and trace down from James and Bessie, not back. Henry died in August 1933, never having married. He lived with his brother Norman at the Carleton Street address and in fact died in the house.

Willie (William Alexander) Waring went to Detroit Michigan in 1911 [Source: Border Crossing Records]He married Edith Boyd and had one known son, Roy Waring born Dec. 1900 in Sacremento California (Source: US Passport Application 1920). His son Roy's passport application dated 1920 states his father William is deceased. Roy died in 1969 in Los Angeles California but I've not yet found if he had children.

Albert (James Albert) Waring enlisted during WW1 in Nevada, USA. In January 1917 he is found on a list of individuals crossing from British Columbia to Marcus Washington. I have not yet hunted for Albert after 1917 so perhaps my readers will take on that task.

Frederick (John Frederick) Waring married Violet May Cridland in 1914 according to the online marriage registrations on Ancestry. I have not yet searched for further details on Frederick.

Samuel (Samuel Holt) Waring is found in the CEF database as enlisting in January 1918. He was single and living with his mother at the Carleton Street address. A marriage registration on Ancestry.com shows him marrying Jane Elizabeth Gardner in 1924. The last record I found for Samuel was a 1963 Voter's List for Eglinton Ontario. His wife "Jane" is with him. I found two children, both stillborn. I do not know if he and Jane had more children.

HILDA

Searching for Hilda McLeod proved a little more challenging. I found a possible candidate living for Hilda, born in 1893 and living in Toronto in 1911 with her parents Dougald and Mary Ann, and marrying in Toronto in 1921. But not to Norman Waring. I do not know if this is Hilda of the letters.

Whatever the relationship between Norman and Hilda, they did not marry and so far I have not found a living relative of Norman E. Waring. Perhaps my readers can use their genealogy sleuthing skills to help bring these letters and photos home.

6 comments:

Very interesting story! I'm sure your research will help to locate relatives. I have been blogging my husband's father's and 2 uncles' letters from WW1.Please have a look:www.lettersfromww1.blogspot.com and see links to other blogs.

Thought I'd say hi, I'm the distant relative in the story. What an interesting story, I'm really glad the owner of the house could be identified and hopefully a descendent can be found. This family has been so key for me as Norman's parents were first cousins, tying two branches of my tree together.

I am the step-grand daughter of Roy Boyd Warring and I wanted to give you a little correction to your citations on the Willie "William Alexander" Waring and Roy Waring you have cited in your genealogy. The Roy you have listed with the birth date 12/4/1900 isn't the son of the William A. Waring you have listed. Our Warring in this instance is spelled with two r's.

My Grandfather's father, William Alexander Warring, died in Sacramento, California on 12/Dec/1905, so he couldn't have crossed into the United States in 1911. Our Roy Boyd Warring was born on 4/Dec/1900 in Sacramento, Ca. His parents were William Alexander Warring, from Toronto, Canada and Edyth Boyd Warring, from Colfax, Indiana. Edyth passed in 1903 in Sacramento from consumption and William followed two years later on 12/12/1905. Our Roy was raised by his grandparents, Lois and George Boyd. Lois died about 1909 in a river boat accident on the Sacramento River, George died about 1912 of heart failure. My grandfather then lived with family friends and started making his way in the world. He enlisted in the Army in May of 1918 and was trained as a pilot but never saw action as the War was over shortly after his enlistment. He had an older cousin vouch for his age as he fibbed on his enlistment form. Not unusual at that time.

My sister and I grew up in Sacramento and have pictures of the grave sites. The passport application you refer to has our grandfather's signature, which we are so familiar with, so I know it is OUR Roy Boyd Warring and not a different person that you have cited.

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